Web-Based Suggestion Tracking Application
Every organization should collect and respond to suggestions from among its employee population in order to increase efficiency and streamline operations. The most valuable recommendations come from the people actually doing the work. However, capturing and responding to suggestions can be a costly, time-consuming process often handled informally in an unstructured environment. Toward this end, ITSC has developed a web-based application to track, validate and even vote on suggestions received from among an organization's employee population. The entrance point to the system is a simple web-based suggestion form. Once submitted, this form activates a chain reaction. It flows through the system to various departments and people, dynamically routed depending on the subject category it affects. Many options are available along the route, such as recategorizing the suggestion, withdrawing it entirely, or allowing it to pass to the next level. All comments and decisions, as well as the initial submission, are saved into a database for historical record. Candidate suggestions can also be posted on a web-based reflector, allowing for widespread review and comment. Upon completion of this review, a voting process is initiated. Voting is accomplished via the web as well. A voting committee is selected and each member is allowed to vote multiple times until a specified closing date is reached. Access to previous votes and associated comments are available to assist committee members in the decision-making process. Once voting closes, the results are tabulated and a final decision on the disposition of the suggestion is reached. It is possible to return to almost any point in the system, if necessary, to reconsider the suggestion or to move forward to the last step in the approval process. Upon final approval, the suggestion is incorporated into a new standard and the suggestion process is closed. This application can help an organization take advantage of the expansive knowledge base of its employee population by establishing a structured suggestion processing environment. It provides a discrete starting point for the entire suggestion system, standardizes formats, and defines terminology and responsibilities. It can be migrated to other document tracking applications, and should be useful to any organization interested in taking advantage of the experience and expertise it helped to cultivate.
